| 100% | ITAR | 4 | Letters picked up by TASS in 1992 and dropped again in 2014 |
| 40% | ITAR | 4 | Name dropped by TASS in 2014 |
| 35% | CAVALIERS | 9 | The hometown team which picked up LeBron James in 2003 draft and where he returned back in 2014, Cleveland ___ |
| 34% | BAAS | 4 | David ___, picked up by the 49ers in the 2005 draft and played center for the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI |
| 32% | SENSE | 5 | Pick up sensei and drop one |
| 32% | PCS | 3 | Letters dropped by Metro in 2018 |
| 31% | WHOSGOINGTOKNOW | 15 | *"If you're alone in the kitchen and you drop the lamb, you can always just pick it up. ___?" |
| 31% | BUS | 3 | School pick up and drop vehicle |
| 28% | PAMELAANDERSON | 14 | "Baywatch" star who married Rick Salomon in 2007 and again in 2014 |
| 28% | AREA | 4 | "I was in the ___ and thought I'd drop by" |
| 28% | STA | 3 | Pick-up and drop-off point: Abbr. |
| 27% | HTML | 4 | Code, sometimes spruced up by Java and CSS, in which web pages are written |
| 27% | ONA | 3 | "Club goin' up ___ Tuesday" (refrain in a 2014 platinum hit by ILoveMakonnen) |
| 27% | HITCHINGARIDE | 13 | Getting picked up by the side of the road ... or what 20-, 30- and 39-Across are literally doing? |
| 27% | CAFFEINE | 8 | Pick-me-up ingredient in tea and coffee |
| 27% | SCTV | 4 | Canadian comedy picked up by NBC in 1981 that recently shot back into the limelight with the launch of the latest two US astronauts |
| 27% | LONERS | 6 | Single sorts, and the letters dropped from pairs in the theme answers |
| 26% | MOVETHECHAINS | 13 | Pick up first downs, in football slang ... with a visual interpretation seen inside the answers to 19-, 24-, and 42-Across |
| 26% | EDT | 3 | Item the Turks and Caicos Islands stopped observing in '15 but started up again in '18 (abbr.) |
| 26% | RECYCLEDMATERIALS | 17 | Parts used over and over again, such as the letters in the answers to the starred clues |
| 26% | ISOSCELES | 9 | Like the figure formed by the three circled letters in the upper right |
| 26% | SCALENE | 7 | Like the figure formed by the three circled letters in the upper left |
| 26% | UNAPOLOGETIC | 12 | Seventh studio album by Rihanna, that won her a Grammy in 2014 and had global hits like "Diamonds" and "Stay" |
| 26% | LUGE | 4 | World champion downhill event where the best US finishes were second places by Myler and Kennedy in 1992 |
| 26% | HELPMEOBI | 9 | With 61- and 37-Across, famous line by 53-Across in [see circled letters] |
| 26% | RELEARN | 7 | Pick up again |
| 25% | SAM | 3 | ___ Walton who started with a Ben Franklin store in Arkansas in 1945 and had 1,960 stores by 1992 |
| 25% | LSI | 3 | San Jose-based semiconductor co. started in 1981 and acquired by Broadcom Inc. for $6.6 billion in 2014 |
| 25% | ALE | 3 | "___ Street News", founded in 1992 by Tony Forder and Jack Babin to provide info about the world of beer |
| 25% | VIBES | 5 | Things picked up by the perceptive |